The present invention relates to making a plan such as train schedule diagram and personnel arrangement schedule.
In a plan making system for solving a complicated problem such as generation of train schedule diagram or personnel arrangement schedule, fine man-machine controllability is important. If a problem becomes complicated and large-sized, however, its processing using a single work station as in the conventional technique becomes impossible. Therefore, planning using a plurality of work stations becomes necessary. Since the number of operations conducted by operators is large when planning, it is necessary that operation management among a plurality of work stations be performed rapidly.
In conventional master-slave type dual systems, the output of the subsidiary system (slave) is not reflected onto the system in the normal state. Thus, the output of the subsidiary system is not reflected onto the system until switching from the main system (master) to the subsidiary system is performed in case of failure of the main system.
When the scale of the plan becomes large, it becomes impossible to display the whole plan on one screen to make and modify the plan. Therefore, it becomes necessary to divide the plan to make it. Therefore, it becomes necessary that plans of allotted ranges can be simultaneously made at a plurality of work stations. In addition, management of mutual operations becomes necessary in case plan making is to be performed at a plurality of work stations. In the above described prior art, however, the output of the subsidiary system is not reflected onto the main system, and hence a plan cannot be mutually made between both systems at the same time. Since planning is not performed at the same time, management of mutual operation conflicts between the main system and the subsidiary system has not been performed. Further, in case portions of planning are allotted to a plurality of work stations belonging to the main system or the subsidiary system, priority relations do not exist among those work stations. In operation conflict management at the time of data access, therefore, mutual monitoring is always necessary and constant overhead is always applied at the time of operation. Further, in case a plurality of operators jointly make or modify the same plan, conflicts in opinion among the respective operators may often result in a problem.